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Former deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine has said the letter from Liam Fox to David Cameron about defence cuts "looked to me like a letter written to be leaked".
He said that did not mean that Fox, the defence secretary, was behind the leak that piled pressure on the government not to significantly cut defence spending while the country is at war.
In the letter Fox told Cameron that if the strategic defence review "continues on its current trajectory it is likely to have grave political consequences for us, destroying much of the reputation and capital you, and we, have built up in recent years".
He said the Tory party, the media and the armed forces "will be brutal if we do not recognise the dangers, and continue to push for such draconian cuts at a time when we are at war".
Heseltine, who resigned in 1986 as defence secretary from Margaret Thatcher's government, told Jon Sopel for tomorrow's Politics Show on BBC ONE:
"There are people in the Ministry of Defence who know where the buttons are that you've got to press.
"And when I read it, I thought, 'I don't know, I think there's an element here that this one day might see the light of day.'"
MoD police are investigating how the private letter to the prime minister was released into the public domain.
Fox said the leak was " totally unacceptable".
"I am utterly appalled by this breach of trust and have ordered a full investigation to find out how it happened. We will stop at nothing to ensure that the culprit is found."
The issue of defence spending will be a hot topic at the Conservative party conference which begins in Birmingham tomorrow.
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